Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Phoenix and Thorne
For next week Gon and Phoenix continued training as they waited for Killua to pass the Hunter Exam and return to the game. During the week Gon had made a lot of progress when it comes to his paper ability and he's started on a scissors attack now too, but his paper attack still needs a lot of work before he's completely mastered it.
Phoenix on the other hand had finally mastered her fireball technique and is able to form the fireball in both hands without needing the other one to help form it. She's able to quickly create them and throw them as an attack at her enemies. She has also started to work a new technique.
The night before Killua was to return to the game the three were sitting in front of a small campfire that Phoenix had lit and just spoke whatever came to life, well Gon and Bisky were, Phoenix was laying back and looking at the star filled sky talking to Tarkar in her mind.
"I think it's time." She thought to the Dragon King as Thorne curled up on her stomach fast asleep.
"I agree, young one. How will you do it?" He asked in his deep voice.
"I think I'm going to tell Killua first, he might even know something about the legend since his grandfather has a dragon so he might have told him if he knew." Phoenix theorized.
"Will you bring him to meet me?" Tarkar then asked.
Phoenix didn't say anything for a moment before sighing, "I think I will, if we're going be in a relationship then we need to trust each other with all of our secrets and you're my biggest secret, he needs to know you." Was all she said before she came out of her mind and sat up, cradling Thorne in her arms so he wouldn't fall and wake up.
Looking at her two friends she couldn't help but smile, she knew that she could count on them keeping her secret and she wanted to tell them in that moment but felt she had to tell Killua before she told anyone else, he was her boyfriend after all.
The next morning the three were waiting at the start of the game for Killua to come down the stairs, luckily the trio weren't waiting long before the white-haired teen came into their view.
"Welcome back, Killua! How was the exam?" Gon asked as Phoenix walked forward quickly and threw her arms around her boyfriend.
Killua was quick to tightly wrap his arms around the girl, happy to see her again after a week, he had really missed her. "I passed in no time, naturally." He answered once he let Phoenix go and grabbed her hand before the couple made their way back to their friends where Killua fist bumped Gon with a wide grin.
"Congratulations, Killua! You're a hunter just like us now!" Phoenix happily exclaimed as she gave her boyfriend a sweet kiss on the cheek making said male's cheeks erupt in a blush.
"Sorry to interrupt your celebration, but look at these spell cards." Bisky said stopping Killua from saying anything.
"I think we should go back to our training area before we show Killua the spell cards, you never know if people are going to come and try to steal them if we hang around here for too long.
The three agreed before they started to travel back to where they first started training with Thorne jumping onto Killua's shoulder and rubbing his cheek against his neck as a way of saying he missed him.
Once the four finally got back to their training grounds Phoenix, Bisky and Gon summoned their books and showed Killua the spell cards they bought the night he left the game.
"Wow…" Killua exclaimed as he looked at all the cards the three had bought. "There's even an S-rank card! How much can we sell it for?" He asked excitedly.
"Oh, let's go ask around!" Bisky answered just as excited.
"No, we should use it wisely." Gon interrupted before turning to Phoenix, "What do you think we should we do Phoenix?"
Phoenix thought for a moment, "I think we should hold onto it for the moment, you never know when we might need it." She suggested.
"Well, I guess it's safe to hold on to it." Killua mumbled seeing the logic in Phoenix's reason. "With all these defence spells, we don't need to worry about it getting stolen. Have you tried any of these?" He then asked.
"Just Blackout Curtain." Gon answered.
Killua looked up a little confused, "What? If you have all these cards, you should use them… Start by using this one." He said handing a card to Gon, "You can choose a player you've met before and talk to them." He said describing the card Contact.
"Who should we talk to?" Gon asked his friends.
"We won't know until we see who's available." Killua shrugged.
"Contact on!" Gon chanted as the card glowed yellow before disappearing from his hand.
A long list of players appeared in the back of Killua's book. Phoenix looked over her boyfriend's shoulder quacking skimming through some of the names but didn't recognized many of them. Suddenly Killua gasped in shock as he stared to the screen with shock and fear.
"Hey, Gon, Phoenix… When did you run into him?" He stuttered out.
Phoenix and Gon looked at each other confused before Phoenix looked at the name Killua pointed at only to gasp and lean back a bit, she never would have expected his name to appear. Gon seeing Phoenix's reaction quickly made his way to Killua's other side and had a similar reaction to Phoenix.
Chrollo Lucilfer. Was staring straight back at them. "Chrollo?" Gon asked perplexed.
"Who's Chrollo?" Bisky asked not knowing what was going on but the trio of teens were too surprised to answer her.
"I haven't seen Chrollo inside the game." Gon reassured with Phoenix nodding her head in agreement as Thorne jumped onto her shoulder sensing her discomfort.
"Does that mean you guys passed each other without noticing?" Killua asked looking between the two as they ignored Bisky.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" The blonde then asked wanting to be a part of the trio's conversation.
"That doesn't make any sense thought, Kurapika sealed off his nen with his chains, he shouldn't be able to get into the game at all." Phoenix pointed out getting a little worried that Kurapika's chains didn't work.
"Yeah, and you have to use nen to enter the game." Killua agreed.
"Who's Kurapika?!" Bisky then asked getting annoyed that she was being ignored by her three students.
"That means…" Killua started but was interrupted by an uppercut from Bisky as she had finally reached her limit. Looking up toward the sky Phoenix saw that Gon was also uppercut. Looking down with wide eyes Phoenix watched as Bisky steamed.
"Tell me what's going on!" The blonde yelled in frustration.
Once Killua and Gon had made it back to the two girls and baby dragon with swollen cheeks the three explained who Chrollo and Kurapika were and how Kurapika sealed off Chrollo's nen.
"Is it possible to get rid of someone's nen?" Phoenix asked concerned.
"It's called exorcism. It's very doable." Their teacher answered the young girl.
"Seriously?" The blue-eyed teen asked shocked that something like that could exist.
"Of course! If you can place nen on others, its not so strange that there are ways that nen can be removed, as well." Bisky explained to her surprised students.
"Does that mean Chrollo's removed Kurapika's nen, and entered the game?" Killua wondered looking at his two friends.
"Why would he be here?" Gon then asked.
"It's probably not him, I would imagine that nen exorcists are rare and he's probably still looking for one, but we can't be sure." Phoenix mused out loud with Gon and Killua nodded in agreement to her statement.
"I agree, but we should probably let Kurapika know. I'm going to hop out again." Killua decided.
"You can use a spell card to leave." Phoenix said knowing that if was the one of leave and call Kurapika then she would end up missing him even more then she does now and she didn't want any distractions while playing this game, already knowing just how dangerous it is, especially now with the bomber out there killing players.
"Save it. I'll be back in four hours." He told his girlfriend, giving her a quick kiss before running off towards the docks so he could get an easy pass out of the game.
While the three waited for Killua to return Phoenix and Gon decided to have a friendly sparring match with Bisky watching over them, there weren't allowed to use their nen as it was just a fun activity for them to pass the time with.
It was about three hours later that Killua meet back up with them at their training area and explained what Kurapika had told him, "Looks like it's not the real Chrollo, like Phoenix said."
"Oh…" Gon said not sure what else to say.
"Kurapika was pretty calm about it." Killua continued. "Like he wasn't concerned, he didn't react much at all."
"Knowing Kurapika, he has a backup plan in case something like this happened, I say that we don't worry about it too much right now." Said Phoenix with a shrug as she handed Thorne over to Killua.
"Well, it sounds like you got worried for nothing." Said Bisky with a calm smile. "Now it's time to focus on yourselves!"
"Osu! Start with the basic…" said Gon.
"We're not going to train." Bisky interrupted. "It's time to start… beating this game!"
At the words of her teacher Phoenix couldn't help but jump on her toes a bit in excitement, she couldn't wait to start collecting the cards needed to beat the game, she could just imagine all the kinds of things they'd have to do to get them all. It was going to be fun; she just knew it.
"It's said the legendary King White Stag Beetle lives only on this tree!" An NPC told the four. "There's only one way to capture it!"
They were standing in from a huge tree, it didn't take long for them to figured out that going for the easier obtainable cards was the smartest way of going about this and leaving the hardest cards to last.
"Hit the tree hard enough to shake it out." The NCP explained. It was quickly decided that Gon would be the one to hit the tree, since one of his nen abilities was a literal punch with concentrated nen.
"Show me rock!" Gon started bring his nen into his fist. "Jan Ken Rock!"
Gon hit the tree hard enough to not only make the tree shake but to also make the earth around them vibrate. All of a sudden, bugs started to rain down on them from the tree. Bisky was shielding her head as much as she possible could so Phoenix placed Thorne on her head, where he started to snap at the bugs, trying to eat them.
"Wow!" Killua exclaimed in amazement making Phoenix laugh as she dodges a centipede that was about to fall on her face.
"It's raining bugs!" Bisky cried in disgusted trying to dodge the bugs as well, even though Thorne was either roasting or eating the ones what came near the two.
Once the down fall of bugs stopped the four looked around to find the white stag beetle they were looking for.
"Found it." Said Gon, picking up said beetle so it could change into a card. They were able to find another two and collected them as well, hoping to sell the two they won't need. "Difficulty rank A! That makes three King White Stag Beetle cards!"
"You could've gotten more if you'd thrown a real punch." Killua said with a smirk, arms behind his head.
"Well, I didn't want to damage the tree." Gon said a bit sheepishly.
The next card they were going for was a card that was inside a mansion, they had Killua sneak it while Phoenix distracted the guard standing in front of the gate, Bisky and Gon standing behind her, given that Phoenix was the best at distractions.
"There is no such girl in this mansion." Said the guard when Phoenix asked about the girl, who was actually the card they were looking for. "Even if there were, it would be impossible for you to bypass all the traps and find her."
"Found her." They heard Killua's voice from the other side of the gate, which opened with Killua dragging a purple haired girl with him. 'She was in a hidden room, four floors underground."
"What?" the guard cried. "Curse you!"
The guard was about to hit Killua if it wasn't for Phoenix upper cutting him into the sky, something that she had learnt from watching Bisky do it to the boys plenty of times.
"Got an A-rank Gold Dust Girl!" Said Killua holding up the card.
"The guard was an F rank." Gon said with blank eyes as he picked up the card.
"Next, let's head to Dorias, the Gambling Town!" Bisky announced as the four were quick to started running toward they next destination.
"Wait, wasn't today supposed to be the monthly contest in Antokiba?" Gon asked the others/
"We'll be passing through, so let's give it a try!" Phoenix said with a grin, happy to be doing something other than training for once.
"The winner is Team Killua and Gon!" The announcer called out as the two boys waved at the crowd who were cheering loudly. The two cheering the loudest was Phoenix and Bisky who decided that the two boys should be the ones who entered the tournament.
"A Paladin's Necklace! Score!" The boys celebrated when they meet back up with the girls and baby dragon.
"I don't understand this description." Gon mumbled.
"We can ask one of the shopkeepers." Killua suggested.
The four were quick to make their way to the nearest shop that could explain the card to them.
"When you wear this necklace, you can reflect all attack spells." The shopkeeper started to explain to the four. "And if you touch cards under the effects of Transform or Clone, you can restore them to their original state."
"Wow… if we wear this, we won't have to worry about losing any cards." Exclaimed Killua's as the four looked at the necklace around Gon's neck.
"How about we get a quick lunch before we head off for the next card?" Phoenix suggested when her stomached grumbled suddenly, making her blush in embarrassment.
"Sounds like a plan!" Bisky was quick to agree.
After a lunch of sandwiches, the four were walking outside the city on their way to Dorias.
"Memory Helmet… Witch's Love Potion… Risky Dice… King Great White Beetle… Gold Dust Girl… Paladin's Necklace… A total of six different restricted slot cards!" Gon said after he finished listing all the cards they had.
"Piece of cake!" Killua and Gon high fived.
"Those are the more easily obtainable restricted cards, we still haven't gone after the S-rank or SS-ranked cards yet, they're bound to be more of a challenge but I would say we're making good progress." Phoenix was quick to remind the boys, not wanting to them to completely let down their guards just yet.
Suddenly Gon's book dinged and voice came out of it. "Another player had cast Contact on you."
"Hey. It's been a while, Gon." A male voice spoke making the four look at each other confused, none of them had any idea who it was.
"Who are you?" Gon asked with no tact making Phoenix sigh.
The voice chuckled amused at Gon's question. "You don't remember me? Do you remember the player who took the Sword of Truth from you in Antokiba?"
Phoenix, Killua, and Gon gasped in realization, the guy with the purple hat.
"What do you want?" Phoenix asked before Gon could ask anything
"Oh, is that Phoenix? Up for a trade?" He asked her. "I have #66, The Witch's Diet Pill, and #17, Book of V.I.P Passes. You can talk it over with your friends."
"What do you think?" Gon asked his friends.
Killua looked lost in thought but Phoenix was quick to answer. "It would save us a little time and we wouldn't have to look for those cards, we could use our energy looking for more difficult cards." She said making Gon nodded in agreement.
"I agree with Phoenix, if we can trade some cards then that's less that we have to collect." Killua shrugged.
The three turned to Bisky, wanting to know what she thought but she said she was happy to trade with the guy.
"We'll do the trade." Gon said.
"Great, we'll meet you in a moment." He said before hanging up the contact call.
Once he and two of his friends arrived, they were quick to trade and then leave with no trouble.
"That was uneventful." Bisky commented, slightly disappointed, Phoenix couldn't help but agree with her disappointment.
"Kind of a letdown…" Agreed Killua.
"I was so nervous…" Sighed Gon making Phoenix chuckle to herself. "But now we're gathered seven types, in three days! We're making decent progress."
"Okay, let's keep this up." Grinned Killua. "Are there any other events in the city for getting restricted slot cards?"
"Hmm… I think there are, but…" Bisky murmured before telling her students to follow her.
Soon they arrived at casino of sorts that was only slot machines.
"Prizes from the slot machines?" Phoenix guessed.
"Should've expected as much from Dorias, the City of Gambling." Commented Killua.
"You have a 0.01% chance of winning. That's one in ten thousand." Bisky told her students.
"So, it all comes down to luck. Pretty risky." Killua summarized before getting a look of realization and turning to Gon, "I know, Gon! Use that dice!"
Phoenix, Gon, and Bisky watched as Killua made himself comfortable at a slot machine with a 'Risky dice'. "This is it… if we get a Great Luck, we can win!" Killua exclaimed.
"But if you get Worst Luck, something bad will happen that cancels out everything good that's happened." Gon tried to warn the white-haired boy.
"That's only a one in twenty chance of getting Bad Luck," Killua said offhandedly, not worried about the consequences of that happening.
Killua rolled the dice before the three could try to talk him out of it. Phoenix let out a small sigh of relief when it landed on Great Luck.
"Now we hit the slots!" Killua pulled the lever and got triple 7's. "Awesome! On the first try!"
Phoenix got the card from the prize slot and picked up the Rainbow Diamond card, blanching at the description. Having a diamond that makes it impossible to say to when being proposed to seemed really unfair to her. Killua seemed pretty happy with the card though.
"That's what I thought… this die is the key to winning in this city." He grinned.
"But if you roll Worst Luck, it could be scary." Bisky pointed out.
"Don't worry. It can't kill me…" Killua waved her concerns off but was cut off when an explosion sounded a little bit off from the four.
They looked over and saw a man laying on the ground, smoking, along with the slot machine he was using.
"Oh, no! A slot machine exploded!" Someone cried out.
"I knew something was wrong. That guy hit the jackpot five times in a row." Someone else said.
"And he was acting weird…" someone said. "He kept rolling a funny-looking die."
Phoenix shared a nervous look with Killua at those words, really unsure if she liked the idea of her boyfriend using the Risky Dice anymore but knew that short of physically taking the die, he would still use it.
After ten minutes of using the slot machine Bisky and Phoenix moved over to another slot machine and took the seats, bored of watching Killua on the machine, leaving Gon to watch and collect the cards.
"How long is this going to go on for?" Phoenix asked lifting Thorne off her shoulder and onto her lap so she could massage his wings, she wanted to try and teach him to fly soon.
"I don't know but if he doesn't stop soon, I'm going to knock him out," Bisky groaned with annoyance.
Killua hadn't listened to either of them when they tried to tell them that the cards that he had won was enough for now and that they should go before his luck ran dry, which was bound to happen sooner rather than later.
When Killua started to mutter to himself and make a bit of scene Phoenix turned to Bisky with a deadpanned look, "Do it."
That was all the blonde need. She quickly walked over and hit Killua is the neck with a chop, knocking the gambling boy out. Phoenix join Gon and the two just sighed at their friend's behaviour, both glad that it was finally over and they could leave.
The three were quick to leave the city before Killua woke up, who was on Gon's back.
"Okay, let's go to the next city!" Bisky said cheerfully, happy to be away from the city, Phoenix couldn't help smile at the blonde, happy that she was with them.
A/N: The long-awaited chapter is here, enjoy everyone
FFAP: Phoenix is double jointed, it's why she's so flexible.
Answer from the last chapter: I might have Feitan suggest Phoenix to join the troupe but if he did it would be at the end of the series, when Killua and Gon split up.
The question of the chapter: What is everyone's ideal holiday/vacation?
Thank you for reading my fanfiction, I love you guys.
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